I know women who were raped because prostitution is illegal.

Except the argument that certain sex workers are privileged and therefore shouldn’t’ get to speak is often lobbed indiscriminately. Here’s someone who was a minor sex trafficking victim who was basically told her opinion didn’t matter because she was “a highly educated leftist”:

Bullshit. The vast majority of women in the sex trade are *currently* acting mostly by choice. However most of them were coerced earlier in their careers. I personally know someone who was trafficked as a minor and then did survival sex work before making it a voluntary career as an adult. Guess how many more…

It would decrease the rape of sex workers because they could credibly threaten their attackers with legal consequences, and take more actions to protect themselves from probable bad situations. (Hiring security for sex work is illegal in my jurisdiction, so is paying for someone else to screen a client, so is paying…

Every sex worker rights activist I’ve ever seen has been pushing to make the experience of people involved in sex work better.
They aren’t saying people don’t regret going into the industry. They are saying that once people are in the industry, whether they are trafficked into it, enter it because it’s the only way…

A modest number? IIRC all our infantry combat units were suffering fatigue due to the deployment schedule.

Also, IMO we have essentially lost. We haven’t achieved any of our strategic objectives, therefore we haven’t won. I suppose that’s technically different than losing, since we can disengage and just admit that we…

Would it? Al-Qaeda is little more than a well armed militia and the US government, despite a full declaration of war has had little success turning them into swiss cheese for more than a decade now.

“I like how I explained precisely how and why I’m NOT biased (except against bad writing) and you come back blathering about my inability to move past my biases.”

Can you quote me where you explained that you aren’t biased? Because I read your initial post 3 times and it seems you never said that. Now, maybe as someone…

It’s because the legal system doesn’t work when it comes to sexual assault against vulnerable populations.
This is why schools, including universities, grade schools and pre-schools have policies in place which they can use to terminate their employees for inappropriate conduct, even if a court of law finds “reasonable…

Because high energy physics has never made any worthwhile contributions to anything.
See: nuclear power, nuclear weapons, radiation therapy (the kind that kills cancer), PET and CT scans.

Will this yield and immediate benefit? Probably not. Will it yield a long range benefit? Who knows. It was something like 75 years…

Ok, I’m not fucking with you but I’m trying to make a point about how I think appealing to overpopulation reduction is incredibly ignorant and misguided. Like, that is literally the argument that the Chinese Government uses for it’s child limitation policies which sometimes manifest as forced abortions.

It’s not a line…

What about genocide? Should that be legal strictly for overpopulation reasons alone?
Or forced sterilization? Should that be legal strictly for overpopulation reasons alone?

You’ve managed to select the absolute worst argument to support your point of view without referencing any others.

Or alternatively it could be used as a covert weapons platform. Keep the exterior profile clean, paint it like a commercial cargo airliner, and have the CIA or whomever get it a cargo route flight path that takes it near the target. Preferably on a path towards friendly airspace. But you wouldn't even need tanker…

The Hugo is awarded to works voted on by fans. If fans like reading stories that present diverse viewpoints then they will award those stories.

Clearly SF fans like reading said stories since they awarded the Hugo to LeGuin's The Left Hand of Darkness in 1970. Which was 45 god damned years ago. That's how long stories…

"This is why Harry Potter did not win a Man Booker. It's not what that award is about."

Xin Zhao was the 2nd champion they released after I started playing.
At the time I was queueing with friends who had been playing a bit longer than myself. This is all I have to say:

White people in north america didn't just steal land though. They also systematically and intentionally destroyed the indigenous culture. In my home state native children were forced to attend boarding schools in which they were beaten and otherwise abused for speaking their native language, or even "acting native".…

Even if you consider it sexual assault, you wouldn't consider the person initiating the contact to be the victim would you? Under that framework this dolphin sexually assaulted this man. He was "embarrassed" by the approach and the initiated contact. It doesn't sound like he was consenting initially to me. But over a…

"For me that is why there should be a "bright-line rule" against human/other animal sexual interaction."

So when I tried to have sex with another kid at my preschool neither one of us could possibly have been consenting, under any circumstances.

I'm so glad I have you to tell me that I was both an attempted rapist and victim of attempted rape at 5 years old.

I think you're confusing legal definitions for reality. Legally a…